If you find a hacienda in the middle of nowhere, leave before sunset

What I am about to write is a warning for anyone who finds the hacienda in the middle of nowhere. If you do, leave before the sunset.

My dad was an adventurer at heart, always trying to find a new place to explore, new people to talk with, and new food to eat. One day, he found a hacienda on top of a steep hill covered by large trees. The place was very well hidden, which only made my dad more curious. 

He set out to explore what he presumed was an abandoned place. But out came an old man, Don Pepe, yelling at my dad to go away. My dad had the ability to make friends with everyone and Don Pepe wasn’t an exception. He helped Don Pepe around with the farm animals, and before leaving, he promised to come back from time to time.

My mom and I would accompany him to visit Don Pepe once or twice a year. The place was beautiful, still is, and I got to play with all the animals as my parents enjoyed the time in what looked to be paradise. But Don Pepe had a rule, we had to leave before the sun went down, no exceptions.

Except one day, when we went to visit, Don Pepe looked more tired than usual and went to sleep before we left. We were all concerned and stayed the night to take care of him. 

In the middle of the night, we heard loud screams. My mom covered my eyes, but I managed to see Don Pepe’s dismembered hand and the goat that quickly took it and ran off with it. Don Pepe claimed it was an accident as he chopped wood, which didn’t make sense but he wouldn’t budge. My parents tried to convince him to go to the hospital, but he refused and told us to leave in the morning.

We continued to visit from time to time. I loved his home, with all the animals and the large forest that surrounded it. Besides that terrible night, I had nothing but fond memories.

On one of my dad’s surprise visits to Don Pepe, he was the one that ended up with the unpleasant surprise. By the state of decomposition, it was presumed that Don Pepe had been dead for a few weeks. Again, surprisingly enough, the farm animals had not touched his body.

He might have known he was dying because he left a will, giving my dad the hacienda. But there was one condition, that he sell it immediately. He also wrote to not worry about the animals, they were being taken care of. We were all confused about this last part, but my dad noted that the animals still looked healthy when he had found Don Pepe.

While my dad was saddened by the loss of Don Pepe and the hacienda, he decided to respect his wishes. But right before selling the hacienda, he proposed that the whole family stay one night to enjoy the hacienda one last time.

And so, we made the hour and a half drive from Mexicali to the hacienda, with all my aunts following behind us. I will say, I have no idea how my dad managed to get our car up that hill. The old Prius cried every time he accelerated. My mom and I looked at each other, worried that this would be the time the car gave up and we rolled down the hill to our death. But somehow, the car made it all the way up, and we all gave a sigh of relief.

My aunts didn’t believe in their cars as much as my dad did in ours and decided to park down the hill. Javi, my cousin, then helped all our aunts up the hill.

“I’m not sure how you got all of our aunts up here,” I joked.

“I’m not sure how your dad got that poor car up here,” he responded out of breath, “This place better be worth it.”

“Trust me, it is,” I answered. And I meant it. He still couldn’t see it because of the large trees hiding the hacienda. But this place was beautiful. The hacienda stood out but also somehow belonged with the forest. Its talavera floor that extended through the whole property made me feel like I was walking through a magical castle. Instead of having an abrupt end, the floor blended with the garden which extended towards the farm to one side, and the forest to the other.

“This place looks fucking awesome!” Javi said excitedly after we got past the trees, “I know we are having a big family meal today but tomorrow we should go out to explore.”

“Sounds good to me, but while everyone gets set up, let me take you to the farm,” I said as I guided him towards the stalls.

As we passed the animals, I called them all by names. Don Pepe had named every single one of them, and would sometimes allow me to name some. But as we neared the goats, I saw one of them was tied outside, separated from the rest. I quickly got to the large brown goat and untied him.

“Bubbles, go be free!” I patted the goat as it quickly took off towards the forest.

“You know they’re just going to pick a new goat for dinner right? And isn’t it going to get lost?” Javi stared at Bubbles as he disappeared into the forest.

“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear the dinner part but Bubbles should be fine. The goats know where to go and how to come back.” I responded.

The rest of the day we spent it with our families. We had dinner, and I didn’t check what goat was chosen, we told stories and just had a good time overall. It truly was an amazing day, but all good things come to an end.

“Xochi, do you want to share a bedroom?” Javi asked, concerned. I had a tendency of sleepwalking, but it hadn’t been an issue recently. 

“It’s fine, I can sleep on my own. Plus you snore loud as hell,” I laughed.

“Dude, you haven’t heard your snores. But fine, I’m still sleeping in the room next door,” Javi pointed to his room.

“Sounds good. Goodnight, Javi.”

“Goodnight, Xochi.”

That night, I had strange dreams. Red eyes gleamed at the edge of the forest. A low growl warned of what was to come. I wanted to move, but I was frozen in place. I screamed for help, but my voice was eaten by the void. And before I knew it, I was awake.

”Fuck!” I said out loud as I realized it was way too bright to be in my bedroom. I felt a searing pain on my leg and realized I was laying down by an ant hill and the ants had started to bite on one of my legs. 

I scrambled to my feet as I tried to remove the ants crawling up my legs. I quickly realized that whenever the heck I was, I had walked barefoot.

I looked around me, and honestly, the view was spectacular. I had miraculously not walked off a cliff and I could see from there a small river that cut through the valley and the mountains. Behind me was the large forest, so dense that light didn’t touch the ground. I was scared, but I couldn’t deny the beauty around me.

“If I had just paid attention to my dad on how to navigate using the sun, I could probably get back,” I said to myself.

I had no idea how to get back. The hacienda was nowhere in sight but I couldn’t have walked too far, right? I was still trying to decide how to get back to the hacienda when I felt something hit my back. I stumbled back, unsure of what had just touched me when I saw Bubbles.

“Thank goodness it’s you and not a mountain lion,” I said as I hugged Bubbles.

I felt some relief because I knew that at some point Bubbles would walk back to the hacienda and I could follow. 

Bubbles gave me one more nudge and headed towards the forest. I followed behind, not wanting to lose sight of him. 

As we made our path back to the hacienda, I cursed at myself for not wearing shoes in my sleep. I could feel rocks, roots, and I don’t know what else cut through the flesh of my feet. One look at my feet confirmed my suspicion that my feet were bleeding and bruised. Every step forward became more painful, but I had to keep going. 

Hours passed and my worry grew knowing my family was probably out there looking for me. They might have even called the rangers already. At some point I had to hold on to Bubbles to be able to walk. As anxious as I was to get back to the hacienda, there was something that was bothering me even more. Why was the forest so quiet? There should have been the sound of birds, or squirrels moving around, but there was nothing. And it might have been due to my nightmare, but I had the feeling that we were being followed. I looked behind me several times, but the only thing behind us was a trail of my blood.

As the day was reaching its end, we finally made it to the hacienda.

“Thank you so much Bubbles! I will make sure you never become dinner!” I hugged Bubbles as I opened the door to the goat’s stable.

I was glad to be back. There was no way I would have found my way back without Bubbles. But now the silence I had experienced in the forest extended to the hacienda. 

I told myself it was quiet because people were out there looking for me. I wasn’t sure how I would let them know I was back, but for now I would go take care of my feet.

I was limping across the farm and into the hacienda when a putrid smell hit me. My empty stomach twisted with revulsion, but luckily, I had nothing to vomit. As I looked around for the source of the smell, I saw the animals frantically eating their feed. I wasn’t sure what they were given, but it looked disgusting.

I decided to keep on going but then something caught my attention inside the chicken coop. There was something shiny, and against my better judgment, I went to check. I covered my nose, but the pungent smell of the feed seemed to go through my skin. And then I recognized what the shiny thing was, it was my mom’s ring. I ignored my disgust at the feed and used my free hand to reach in for the ring but as I pulled it out, my mom’s finger was attached to it. I screamed as I let go of the severed finger and the chickens quickly went back to picking at it.

“MOM! DAD! Is anyone here?” I yelled, but the only noise was that of the animals eating.

I ignored the pain on my feet and made my way towards the hacienda. I first made my way to the entrance to see if the cars were still there. My heart dropped when I saw the Prius parked on the same spot and one look down the hill confirmed all the family was still here.

My body trembled from fear, and all I wanted to do was cry but this wasn’t the time for that. Not yet. And so, I ran towards the bedrooms, screaming and begging for someone to answer me.

Before I could process the image in front of me, I slipped on the floor. I started to heave as I saw I was covered in blood and chunks of meat that I didn’t want to identify. The once cream colored hacienda was not painted in red. I didn’t want to look, but no matter where I looked, there was blood. 

While many of the doors were open, the one where Javi had slept the previous night was still closed. I did my best to get up and walk towards the door.

“Javi? Are you there? Please, open the door!” I begged. “PLEASE, TELL ME YOU’RE IN THERE!”

Tears blurred my vision, and hope of finding someone alive was quickly diminishing. I was about to head to my parent’s room when I heard a growl. I turned around quickly but saw nothing. But that sense of being watched that I had felt in the forest was back. I thought my heart couldn’t go any faster but now it pounded so hard that I wondered if it would come out of my chest.

I didn’t know what to do, when someone covered my mouth and pulled me into a room. I was ready to fight when I saw it was Javi. Before I could speak, Javi put a hand over his mouth and shushed me. He then pointed towards some furniture and instructed me to move it towards the door.

We moved the furniture as quietly as possible. We could hear growls and the occasional scratching of the door. We held our breaths, hoping that whatever was outside, would think there was nothing and walk away. After a long moment of silence, I hugged Javi tightly.

“Do you have any idea what the hell is outside?” I whispered.

“I have no idea. I went out to look for you and when I can back to get help,” Javi stuttered as he started to cry, “I only managed to get into this room because… my mom…”

He couldn’t continue speaking and he didn’t need to. The blood outside this room was his mom’s. 

Javi cleared his throat and continued, “I didn’t get a good look at whatever those things are but they are huge. I have these,” he showed me two knives,” but I’m not sure if they would be useful at all against those things.”

“We need to get out of here, and see if anyone else is out there. We need to-“ I started to panic.

“Xochi, I don’t think there is anyone else, but if there is, our best option would be to get in one of the cars and go get help, but we don’t have any keys,” Javi tried to take another deep breath to calm himself down.

I wanted to argue with him that we should go and look for people, but he was right. If we died, who would help any other survivor?

“My parent’s room is two doors away. Maybe if we make a run for it, we can get the keys and run towards the car,” I said, trying to ignore a big flaw in my plan.

“Can you even run? I don’t think I have ever seen you run in our lives and much less with how mangled your feet are,” Javi looked at me concerned.

“I’ll be fine,” I tried to sound confident,” Besides, do we have any other choice?”

Javi didn’t argue with me, but we both knew there wasn’t much else we could do. We moved the furniture away from the door and waited until there were no noises outside. When we finally decided to open the door, we hoped the silence would be because whatever monster had been outside, had finally left, and not because it was waiting to pounce on us. 

We ran towards my parents’ room, searching everywhere for the keys. I did my best to ignore the dismembered body parts on the floor. Then I felt something hit my back and remembered we had left the door open. Luckily, it was Bubbles.

“Thank goodness it’s just you. I’m sorry we can’t take you with us, but I promise we will come back for all of you,” I said to Bubbles.

“Xochi! I found the keys! Let’s go!” Javi hurried me.

I waved at Bubbles as we headed out. Javi kept paced with me, and honestly I had no idea how I was standing, much less running. But then we heard loud steps and growls behind us. 

“Shit!”, we said in unison as we turned to see the monsters behind us. Impossibly large wolves were coming our way. Their dark fur blended with the shadows that were now forming as the sun made its way down. The red eyes that had stared at me in my dreams, were now looking at me once more. 

“Don’t stay with me! Get to the car and turn it on! I will catch up to you!” I yelled at Javi.

“Are you insane? I can’t-“ 

“GET IN THE CAR!” I gave him no choice, the wolves were already upon us and I wanted at least one of us to make it.

Javi reluctantly ran ahead of me. My hands trembled as I turned around, holding the knife in my hand. At the very least, I might serve as a distraction. But the wolves just passed by me and went directly to Javi.

“NO!!!!” I screamed.

But the wolves caught up to him just as he was about to make it to the car. He screamed as the wolves tackled him to the ground. He used his knife to stab at their paws but the knife went through them without causing harm.

As I looked at him, and then to the setting sun, I understood what I had to do. I crawled by way to the nearest wood stump and put my left hand on it, and with my right, I helf up the knife.

“I know what you need! But let him go!” I yelled at the wolves.

Just wolves stopped. Javi still struggled under them, but the wolves now stared at me. Waiting, to see if I would do what was needed.

I can’t say I didn’t hesitate for a second, but I brought the knife down to my hand. I had hoped the hand would come off with one swing, but that wasn’t the case. My vision became blurry but I didn’t give up. All my body screamed at me to stop as I sawed off my hand.

When my left hand was no longer connected to the rest of my body, Bubbles showed up, picked it up, and took it to the wolves. The wolf that had Javi pinned down, let go, and swallowed my hand. 

“Javi! You have to go now! Before the sunset!” I begged.

“I can’t leave you! You are going to bleed out!” Javi looked at me, terrified.

“I can’t leave. But you can. Please, they will let you go. But only until the sunset. I’ll be fine. I promise,” I cried.

Javi ran to me and gave me a hug. I wanted to go with him so badly, but I knew that wasn’t possible. 

“I will come back for you. I promise,” he cried.

I nodded. I saw the animals open a path for him to get back to the car and waved at him as he made his way down the hill and I said there until the sun finally set.

I never saw Javi. I just hope he is well and has somehow put this tragedy behind him. The rest of my family didn’t make it. After that day, I took Don Pepe’s place and became the caretaker of the hacienda.

People would show up from time to time, just like my dad had shown up for Don Pepe and I make sure to kick them out no matter what. With one exception.

After many years of isolation, two young men offered to install wifi and I allowed it. But they are still not allowed to stay the night. I will say I have grown fond of them, but I don’t want them to have the same fate as my family.

All I ask of you, the reader, is that if you find a hacienda in the middle of nowhere, don’t approach it. And if you do, make sure to leave before sunset.